My Poker Recovery

Hey everyone. I'm new to the site after using 2+2 forever. I've been preparing to play live poker full time in Florida for about a month now. Looking for advice and a general sounding board. First I'll start with a little background on myself. I'm 26 and newly single. I have a degree in Developmental Psychology. I learned to play poker in college around the age of 18. I lost over $5,000 at my fraternity's home game over the course of my freshman year! I was terrible. I took the online route and started playing on PS and Full Tilt to learn the game. I got lucky early on and binked a Sunday major for around 25k. From the advice I received from all the "smart guys" in my frat I decided to report the income and got hosed in taxes. Long story short I blew almost all of it on parties and college stuff. But I did manage to invest in my future and pay for my degree with no student debt. I stopped playing poker and joined the Army. Around my 18 month mark I started playing heavily again and was making decent money playing 100NL and 200NL. So i decided to not reenlist and play poker for a living. That was 2009/2010 and we all know what happened shortly after. I joined the workforce and became a car salesman. I am a born salesman and have made very good money selling both cars and RVs. But the sales world is very grueling and always having shitty bosses really made it worse. I recently decided to leave my job as a sales manager at the RV dealership to play poker full time again but this time live. I have about 200 hours of live poker experience. This isn't a spur of the moment this like dross11. But in essence it amounts to the same thing. I cannot continue to work in my current field. I would probably go postal on someone. I have still been making a decent living playing on Merge and Bovada at the 25NL and 50NL levels. Averaging around 7bb/100 putting in about 15k hands each month. I have a decent bankroll and plan to start at 200NL at the Hard Rock Tampa and move around to find the best games. The only constant thing in my life has been poker and it has gotten me through the toughest times of my life so far. I have an extreme passion for the game but have never been in an area where there was any sort of poker community. I am under no illusions about the difficulty of becoming pro. But I do have the work ethic and a decent poker skill set that I think gives me an advantage. I will continue to play 100NL on Merge and Bovada while playing live for a living. I feel a good balance between both can be beneficial. My first game will be Saturday. I plan to play around 30 hours each week and follow a strict BRM and Study plan utilizing my poker journal and hand history maker to upload m results to my HM2 database. I have 200 hours live experience but I feel like a complete newbie. So any and all advice is appreciated. I will update this once per day. Some days it will only be a few sentences but I will try to post all my results and tough spots so I can improve. I would also love a reading list of books you guys suggest. Sorry for the length of my OP but I am a writer in spirit so I type a lot.

Comments

If you could actually beat 100 and 200NL, then you have the technical skills to beat the games. It's going to come down to patience (live is SOOOO slow, comparatively), not running terrible early on, and an ability to pick up the live skills. In general, online players are better technical players than live players, but a lot of times they are fish when it comes to ALL of the other things. Live, you have to deal with people. If you were a semi-successful sales person, you might already have the necessary tool bag to make this work.

Here's two suggestions for you:
1) not burning out. People don't realize that playing live poker is fairly hard. You'd think sitting in a chair playing a game would be easy, but that's not necessarily the case. Try to find a fairly forgiving schedule, and then stick to it. Maybe take Monday-Wednesday off and play Thursday-Sunday for 7ish hours each, with a full meal break on each day.
2) Cutting expenses. Bankroll considerations when you play pro are WAY higher than when you play recreationally. If you're taking money out of that roll to pay bills, then it's even higher. Any expenses that you can cut should be. Maybe you and the Dross guy can room together, who knows. But don't make 2k on some saturday and decide that it's a good idea to go buy an iPad.

Im trying to find good solutions to avoid the burn out.As far as expenses. I've set aside 3 months expenses. My BR is 10k. I know Im slightly over rolled for 200NL by online BRM. But I dont think with my lack of live experience that its wise to hit 500NL with only 20BB. I wouldn't mind sharing a apartment with another poker player. Especially someone with limited online experience but plenty of live experience. Would def help my game. For now I will be staying in a cheap hotel and spending most of my days finding the best games.

Its been 5 years since I was able to beat 100NL and 200NL regularly. I've been at the 25NL and 50NL recently with good success. I'm concerned my fundamentals have slipped some and I still don't have a solid grasp on using Equity and EV to make the best decisions. I raised through the uNL ranks mostly on tight aggressive play and using my HUD to isolate weak players. I'm pouring over all the information on this site but I feel a little out of my depth with some of the more high level thinking. Any advice to help the gap?

live poker is so much slower.. but I enjoy it more since you are getting out of the house can socialize a bit.. I also think alot of mondays and tuesdays are underrated.. The days to go play live imho is when the games are fish heavy and pro vacant..

I find that many monday- wednesday games are pro vacant even if there arent as many games each game seems to be softer..

go cheap in life for expenses.. if you can eat for free at the casino (but healthy..dont get all burgers and fries ) take time off of poker and get exercise.. go out with friends.. get outside..

I preach this alot..but start learning other games.. you have a bovada account so get cracking.. I find having the variety so key to me not getting burnt out. I had played virtually no NL in Jan and half of Feb.. All variations of Omaha.. was fun but got sick of it.. So back to NL and loving it.. until I get sick of NL then back to Omaha..

I'd say Sunday is the most overrated day, but Wendy isn't wrong. A lot of this depends on location and the dynamics of that poker room. I'm not opposed to varying your schedule early on to learn the best days. My point is to ultimately get in a routine and do NOT decide to play 17hr sessions because you're down and can't bare to have some red ink on your poker tracker.

Well seeing as I know no one in the FL area socializing will be minimum for me for a while. I'm still trying to find all the comp programs in the area. I already have a Seminole Rewards card from my previous trips to FL for poker. But never really knew how to use it. As for exercise I know allllll about that. While I was playing part time and working part time at a car dealership I got very out of shape. I've always been an athlete and prided myself on my appearance so it was a shock. I won't be going back to that. I'm not into fast food and love to run so I should be good in the fitness department. On a separate note. I played in a 5/10 game a few nights ago at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood. I was just trying to enjoy myself and didn't really plan to play for very long.I got into a very weird spot and don't know if I made the correct play. I was dealt A♦ K♦ and faced with an UTG open from a LAG who had just lost a 100bb stack to a rivered flush. So I choose to raise to $95. Another LAG player who I had seen frequently 3 betting IP min 3 bet to around $200. The UTG calls so I decide to over call. At the time I didn't really feel like stacking off pre with AKs. Flop come 10♦ 2♦ 4♣. UTG checks and so do I. The pot is at $600 and I have about $1,500 behind. The button C bets for around $450. I should state that the game is pretty deep at this point in the night and Uncapped. UTG calls. I put him on a range of 10s JJ QQ and maybe Ax10x. And due to his tilty play since his bad beat I added in 99-77 and some worse 10s. I really didn't assign a strong range to the BTN due to his frequent 3 betting and the fact that he was C betting around 100% of the time in 3 bet pots and almost always betting vs missed C bets. But I knew over calling was a bad play so I shoved. BTN tanks for about 5 mins and calls. UTG insta calls. BTN has A : A♣ and UTG has 10♣ 10 :. turn bricks but I hit the 3♦ on the river. to drag the 4.2k pot. What do you guys think of my play? I feel like even though I won that it was a bad play.

FYI the $2,000 for the above mentioned buy in wasn't part of my poker BR nor is it currently. I was the casino with my old regional manager and he offered to stake me to see me play high stakes. I split the profit with him and proceeded to drink and party most of it away to celebrate the buy out of the company.

Just finished up another session. I decided after railing a few 2/5 games that I would forgo 1/2 and start at 2/5. I played pretty tight early on until I was about 250bb deep and started to open up. I noticed that a lot of live players have bet sizing tells and timing tells. I guess since thats about the only good tells you can pick up online I was looking for them from the beginning. I played about 9 hours. I went 2 hours over what I scheduled but I was in the God seat in position on a calling station and whale. I got into a situation where I was very confused and made a fold where I might not have online. I had A♦ Q♦. I raised to $20 from the CU. BTN called and BB 3 bet to $75. I had about 350bb so I decided to call in position. The BB hadn't been out of line most of the night and was playing pretty ABC. So I put him on a range of 10s+ and AKs AQs. Flop is Ax 4x 8x rainbow. He leads for $125. He bet quickly. The A was in the window and I noticed his eyes darted to his chip stack before the other 2 cards where shown. So I eliminated 10s-QQ. But the sizing was smaller than this particular guys C bet so I decided to see the turn. Qx on the turn. he checks. I decided that his range is now AQ+ and KK+. I bet $225. He tanks for about 3 mins then calls. river is Kx. He again tanks for about 2-3 mins and leads out for about $300. Is this a fold almost always for me? I felt pretty confused by his turn check and told myself I should have just checked the turn down. I ended the session with about $3,800. Def not thinking thats gonna be the norm.

Lol. I have and iPhone as my main phone. I have a business line from my company and they use Android so I have a S4. Once my "consultant" period is done in 90 days I have to give it back. But thanks. I got lucky and had an awesome table and late in the evening they convinced the floor to uncap the game so we were playing 2/5 deep. Or else I would have never won the monster pot that got me there. How do you guys approach tournaments from a BRM stand point. I have a very strong MTT game but I don't like to play a lot of volume. But am looking to play in the upcoming SHRPO event and want to approach it with a good BRM model.

Since you don't like the AKdd hand, how would you have preferred to handle it?

I would have liked to follow my initial read of his range and folded on the flop. His insta look at his cards signaled he had a very strong hand. At best he has AQ all I could have hoped for was a chop. So a flop fold would have been ideal for me.

Posted my first losing sessions so far. Ended up down $270. Ran AA in KK and villian got there on the turn. Then had my nut flush bad beat by the straight flush. Guy won the hand ($900 pot) and high hand ($500) so a $950 profit. Brushed it off pretty quickly to on end up down $270 when I was down around $1,000 at one point. Pretty glad I lost though. Helps me get used to being in a position where tilt could kill me and help me train to avoid it. I'm looking for another poker room in S. FL other than the Hard Rock. Preferably one with good comps. Anyone have suggestions?

Lol. I have and iPhone as my main phone. I have a business line from my company and they use Android so I have a S4. Once my "consultant" period is done in 90 days I have to give it back. But thanks. I got lucky and had an awesome table and late in the evening they convinced the floor to uncap the game so we were playing 2/5 deep. Or else I would have never won the monster pot that got me there. How do you guys approach tournaments from a BRM stand point. I have a very strong MTT game but I don't like to play a lot of volume. But am looking to play in the upcoming SHRPO event and want to approach it with a good BRM model.

One of my Chinese clients routinely carried around 5 phones with him. 2 were for work, 1 family and the other 2 were for his other wives.

One of the perks of being in Florida is that there are so many places to play. I play at least 30 hours a week but rarely more than 8hrs in the same room. Since you are new to the area, consider the option of moving around, and avoiding the temptation to have a lot of pro friends.

Lol. I have and iPhone as my main phone. I have a business line from my company and they use Android so I have a S4. Once my "consultant" period is done in 90 days I have to give it back. But thanks. I got lucky and had an awesome table and late in the evening they convinced the floor to uncap the game so we were playing 2/5 deep. Or else I would have never won the monster pot that got me there. How do you guys approach tournaments from a BRM stand point. I have a very strong MTT game but I don't like to play a lot of volume. But am looking to play in the upcoming SHRPO event and want to approach it with a good BRM model.

One of my Chinese clients routinely carried around 5 phones with him. 2 were for work, 1 family and the other 2 were for his other wives.

Haha. Your a mind reader. I only had the phone out because me and another European player where talking about his 3 phones. He's a stock broker and says he always has a few with him. I don't recieve after hours calls from the dealership so I rarley have it on me after 7pm

Why would you fold the flop on the AKdd hand? You have 9 outs against AA and a set of tens and 12 against KK plus some backdoor straight equity. It is 450 to win 1500 in immediate odds and you still have plenty left behind. If you have fold equity (I don't think you do) it's a shove, if not, it's an easy call.